Improvement in printing and ornamenting



PATENT QFFIGE.

JOSEPH LOUIS WELLS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN PRINTING AND ORNAMENTING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 118,992, dated September 12, 1871.

To all whom it may concern- Be it known that I, J OSEPH LOUIS WELLS, of Philadelphia county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented Improvements in Printing and Ornamenting Surfaces, of which the following is a specification:

My invention consists of a mode or process, too

fully described hereafter to need preliminary eX- planation, of printing and ornamenting surfaces, the said process being especially applicable to the production of cheap signs.

Many attempts have been made to produce cheap signs by printing or stenciling the letters, &c., in oil colors on prepared surfaces. When many signs of a similar character, such, for .instance, as those relating to patent medicines, are required, their production by the ordinary lettering processes becomes a most expensive one, and a cheap means of making them has long been a desideratum. The difficulty heretofore experienced in printing or stenciling letters and other characters in oil has been the impossibility of depositing directly and at one operation on the nonabsorbent surface a sufficient body of the required color to effectually conceal the groundwork, subsequent manipulation being necessary to properly finish the lettering. This is owing to the character of the surfaces, which, as usually prepared, have not that absorbent property and affinity for the pigment, by which alone the adhesion of a sufficient body of the color can be insured. I overcome this difficulty in the manner which I will now proceed to describe.

If it be desirable, for instance, to make letters in oil color on a lacquered or gilt surface,I first cover the latter, or that portion of the surface to which the letters or other characters have to be restricted, with a thin coating of white lead and Water in which is dissolved a small quantity of gum, and when this coat is dry I print or stencil on the prepared surface the desired letters with oil colors, which are absorbed by the coating the latter imparting such a body to the color that a single impression is sufficient to form an opaque coating that will effectually cover and conceal the gilt surface. After the lettering is dry, all the priming is washed from the surface excepting that which is beneath, and has in fact become incorporated with the oil-color lettering, the latter now appearing in distinct and well-defined characters on the gilt surface. A neat sign may be produced on an ordinary tinned plate by first priming the same, then printing letters and other characters or emblems on the primed surface in any desired colors, and finally washing away the surperfluous priming, when the colored lettering will appear in sufficient body on the polished surface of the tinned plate. In like manner cheap signs of the most elaborate character, both as regards color and design, may be produced by the above-described process.

Although I have alluded to a priming of white lead and water, many other primin gs may be used which possess the desired characteristics. It is essential, however, in carrying out my invention, that whatever priming be used, and whatever coloring matter be employed to print with on the said priming, the latter should possess the property of attracting a body of color, and should also admit of being removed by water or other fluid that will not affect the integrity of the lettering.

My invention, although especially applicable to the production of cheap signs, can be used for printing and ornamenting a variety of surfaces. It may be used with advantage, for instance, in lettering canisters, or for printing or stenciling on glass.

I claim The process of ornamenting or lettering nonabsorbent surfaces by applying to the latter a removable coating, printing or otherwise forming the letters or figures on the surface of said coating, and then removing the coating where it is not covered, as specified.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two sub- Witnesses:

G. MYERS, J N0. B. HARDING. 

